The Producer's Workshop - The Producer's Workshop Ensemble in Japan (Self Release)

What Your Ears Say & The Cover Looks Like

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What We Say

Landing in Japan Matthew Rivera trawled Tokyo's thrift stores for discarded instruments & studio gear, enlisted some top Japanese jazzers to augment his multi-instrumental prowess in rent by the hour studios, & has cobbled together a seductively "lo-fi//hi-class" LP where all the right 20th century jazz influences melt into into the warm embrace of hip hop beat culture.

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What The Release Notes Say

Recorded guerrilla-style in and around Tokyo during the first wave of the pandemic with gear purchased largely from thrift shops, The Producer’s Workshop Ensemble in Japan is the quintessential DIY joint – grimy, haphazard, and flawed with a soft sincerity. While the rich textures and awkward chords may bring to mind obvious influences like Slum village, Roy Ayers, The Mizell Brothers, Q-Tip, and Phil Ranelin, the project presents an interesting tension between a glimmery golden era and a decidedly less codified, more experimental production aesthetic that stretches into a new direction. 

It's an oddity, to be sure. 

Bless The Mad’s Matthew Rivera arrived in Japan only days before the first wave of COVID in March of 2020. Too restless to stay put for very long, he had moved from Chicago to work a short-term contract at a University near Tokyo. But the the isolation, stress, and loneliness of pandemic life in a new country, compounded by the death of his father only weeks later, was brutal. 

Rivera put his energy into what he thought of as a sort of musical self-study project in which he would reconstruct beloved soul and jazz tunes on piano, bass, and drums in an effort to improve his musicianship. After dozens of trips to junk shops for cheap instruments and recording gear (a favorite pastime), he filled hi-bias cassette tapes with lo-fi covers of tunes by Weldon Irvine, Stevie Wonder, and Curtis Mayfield, before the inspiration to begin writing his own compositions came. 

To be close to his new job, Rivera found himself living in Chiba prefecture among a sea of white public housing danchis from the 1960s, one exactly like the next. Here, Rivera recorded keyboard sketches with 80s digital piano boxes in his tatami-floored apartment. He then lugged bags filled with his thrift shop hauls (4-track tape machines, compressors, faulty cables, mics) to several of Tokyo’s pay-by-the-hour music rehearsal studios where he would have access to real instruments like grand pianos and drum sets. He spent full days there adding and subtracting sounds slowly, layer by layer. 

These ideas slowly expanded and musical contributions from friends and acquaintances trickled in. Soon, what had started as a series of simple private experiments for Rivera alone, developed over the course of the pandemic into what is now a full-fledged album (or at least partially-fledged) with a rare appearance from sometimes STC collaborator, Lito Brown on wah-wah flute and alto sax, as well as additional contributions from several talented Japanese musicians: Tetsuta Otachi on guitar; Yuki Nakada on koto; Takehide Hashimoto on tenor sax; Kyotaro Hori on flugelhorn; and Yuima Enya on vocals. 

-Sandalio De Díaz 
(June, 2022)

CREDITS
​All tunes composed, produced, arranged, & mixed by Matthew Rivera 
Japanese lyrics written by Yuima Enya 
Recorded on location at STC Mobile Studios, Japan 
Mastered by Steven Berson at Total Sonic Media 
Original low-quality DIY cover "art" by Matthew Rivera 

UNTRO 
Matthew Rivera- drums, grand piano, electric piano, electric bass 

ANYTHING 4 LOVE 
Yuima Enya- lead & background vocals 
Tetsuta Otachi- acoustic guitar 
Matthew Rivera- flute, drums, percussion, grand piano, synthesizers, electric bass, hand claps 
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn 
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone 

MEANT 2B TOGETHER 
Lito Brown- wah wah flute 
Tetsuta Otachi- acoustic guitar 
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn 
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone 
Matthew Rivera- grand piano, drums, percussion, electric piano, electric bass, hand claps 

UNTERLUDE 
Yuima Enya- backwards vocals 
Matthew Rivera- drums, grand piano, electric piano, electric bass 

GOT 2 LIVE 
Yuima Enya- lead & background vocals 
Yuki Nakada- koto 
Matthew Rivera- drums, percussion, grand piano, electric piano, synthesizer, electric bass, finger snaps, background vocals 
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn 
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone 

ANATA to WATASHI 
Yuima Enya- lead & background vocals 
Matthew Rivera- drums, tambourine, string synthesizer, electric piano, synth bass, finger snaps 

DIGGERLUDE 
Matthew Rivera- drums, digital piano, synthesizer, electric bass 

YASASHI (PART 1) 
Yuima Enya- lead vocals 
Tetsuta Otachi- electric guitar 
Matthew Rivera- drums, drum synth, synthesizer, electric bass 
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn 
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone 
Lito Brown- alto saxophone 

YASASHI (PART 2) 
Yuima Enya- lead and background vocals 
Matthew Rivera- drums, percussion, electric piano, synthesizers, electric bass, background vocals 

OUTERLUDES 
Matthew Rivera- drums, percussion, grand piano, electric piano, electric bass 
Tetsuta Otachi- acoustic guitar 
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn 
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone 

NATSUKASHI HITO 
Yuima Enya- lead vocals 
Matthew Rivera- fender rhodes bass, drums, drum synthesizer, percussion, grand piano, synthesizer 
Kyotaro Hori- flugelhorn 
Takehide Hashimoto- tenor saxophone

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If You Like The Producer's Workshop Ensemble Then You Might Like The Slow Jazz Playlist.

You can stream the Slow Jazz playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Youtube and Soundcloud